Story Thread 3: The Search for Plot

I was wondering if we would see Avalon in this game? I'm extremely curious about where Dalia Falmea is from. It isn't quite fully explained in Wizard101. It's thought to be that Dalia is from Weirwood, but it's a very small area and does not explain her height. So someone brought up the point of Pirate101 possibly bringing and expanding Avalon. It would help us find out more about where Dalia comes from. Or at least understand her more by visiting the world especially the Weirwood kind.

Thank you.-Kelsey

Great question -- to add on, we could maybe explore Candyland as well? I'm extremely curious as to where the different teachers are from.

Great question -- to add on, we could maybe explore Candyland as well? I'm extremely curious as to where the different teachers are from.

Oh me too. I am really hoping for a cool skill quest from our teachers that will give us a really good back story similar to Bonnie Anne's. I am sure Blind Mew is working on this but it also will involve the artists, the quest programmers and of course Ratbeard for the awesome battles. I do hope they have the bandwidth to spare for such things. You couldn't be more right on how epic that would be.

1. Upon our return to Valencia, would perhaps alchemy play a part in the world and the quest for El Dorado? I can see it coming in handy to someone like Old Scratch in decoding those Celestial Computations, or an explanation as to the origins of the Armada2. Can we get a bit of an elaboration on Bishop's 'imitation' magic - I know you don't have extensive lore on a lot of the cool tidbits throughout the game, but a wee bit on Bishop's Mage status as well as how he got this 'imitation' magic would be nice...3. You said Book 18 will be quite the doozy in regards to worlds - care to tease us as to why?4. Book XV seems to be set to have lots of promotion quests. Will they mostly involve the Valencia companions?5. Does the Armada have any rebel factions within itself (that are still against the pirate?). Perhaps one of the remaining elites plotting against one another...6. Okay, why is there an Argleston in the Lyceum?! I am so baffled by his presence... 7. Any thoughts on Grizzleheim?8. Are we due for a new storyline ship?9. How did the Armada tow Beachhead into Westminster Skyway? The sheer power and strength to do it seems ridiculous...10. Any future plans for Lunden's Bridge?

1. You answered a question earlier about Gracie Conrad from the Isle of Fetch and Grace Conrad from Celestia saying they are the same person. What I'm kind of thrown off about this is that Grace Conrad is brown furred and sports a pink shirt, making her very different from Gracie Conrad. Gracie Conrad, on the other hand, looks identical to Edith Benchley in the Base Camp of Celestia. Wouldn't it be easier to say Gracie Conrad is a distant cousin or even sister to Grace Conrad? I think it helps allude to Wizard101 rather than making them the same person. Just a suggestion.

2. Do you mind giving a teeny-tiny hint about these captions KI is releasing? Who might the Ancient Ones be and what's up with Aquila coming to Skull Island? Didn't they distance themselves from the Spiral after the first Achaean War (If I remember, correctly)? What have you got up your sleeve this time? I'm very excited about it!

3. You said at one point, I believe in the 2nd Story thread, that a Revolutionary story or theme would be fitting as to what to follow after the El Dorado story ends. Is it possible that for the 2nd story we'll come back to help Avery build his Pirate Republic and use many Colonial American analogue's to break away from Marleybonian (British) and Monquistan (Spanish) rule or World War 1 and 2 references like a German influenced world trying to take over the Spiral? The thought of Goerge Barkington, Christopher Colambus, Moowis and Bark, Marquis de Lapenguette, and Rabbitler (eh?) are interesting puns to use. Maybe even making a northern Skull Island skyway with Polarian rule (like how the French ruled Canada which is north). Plus you have quite a few analogue's people have mentioned (Dutch, Portugeses, and Australian).

4. Is there always a 100% chance a mentioned world actually makes it to the game at some point? Long mentioned worlds like Gobblerton and Candy World posses some sway toward no, but I'm just asking.

Thanks for answering everyone's questions Blind Mew. I have a question for you.I know this is one of those "That Would Be Telling" topics, but since you've already confirmed that we will be returning to Valencia, can you confirm if we will be returning to Monquista?(By this I mean with the world expanded and one or more new skyways.

1. Mordekai is said to be the last of the Hammerhead Sharks known in the Spiral (and obviously, W101 has hammerhead enemies, debunking that idea), but I'm more interested on the possibility of finding a lost clan of Hammerheads or even have one as a companion.

2. Kane already has people wondering why The Armada is the way it is, and you have called the Armada almost this force of nature. But, will the question on if it's possible for a clockwork (mainly Kane) could develop its own emotions, morals, etc. In better words, could it be possible Kane to "have a soul" (like The Replicants in Blade Runner or The Geth in the Mass Effect Saga) and will the idea of what it means to have a soul be touched upon for Kane and his clockworks in later expansions?

3. Awhile back, there was a P101 Central thread where someone said Bonnie and Ratbeard were like an old married couple, which got me thinking:What do you think of inter-companion relationships, like Ratbeard and Bonnie being together, or Hawkules has a crush on Gracie (now that would be fun to see) or even just a simple friendship like our Starters and Kraken Skulls Companions becoming best buds?

4. Wing Chun, Egg Shen, and Kan Po were all given similar promo quests while Kobe and Subodai has unique promo quests. Will we see more of a backstory for them (instead of jusy sharing the same quest) for their next promos (whenever they are)?

5. What's your opinion on a Colonial American World?

6. I always wondered this if our pirate has any grandparents, uncles, siblings, etc. that we don't know about?

7. Is the idea of the PC finding a voodoo object, going back in time to Skull Island (as a new area of itself) during the Polarian Wars, meeting our parents, going on a quest to get them together as a couple when our Mom is dating a younger version of Avery (aka Biff), and get our Mother's map piece, like Back to the Future, out of the question?

1. That would definitely be a fun story thread to tug on. We left it hanging out there for that that reason. It's all a question of timing.

2. Yes. We may never spell it out in terms that direct, but Kane's identity, motivations, and conscience will definitely be chewed on in the future.

3) I don't know that we'd ever go so far as romance, but we do try to subtly weave Companion firendships and emnities in there. People who get Milo Graytail will not that he never has a bad thing to say about Ratbeard.

4) Which time? In their first promotion, all of the monks did basically the same quest, while their second promos were very different quests just grouped around a similar goal. Sometimes constraints of time lead us to have some companions double up for promotions (a few different guys go after the Conundrum machine, for example, and the Magnificent 7 share a quest in Aquila), but we are careful not to do this too much.

5) That would depend. Colonial Virginia doesn't thrill me so much. But something like Salem...

6) Presumably. I expect the quest for mom's map piece would be a good time to find out more about them.

7) Wow! Cool idea. And I appreciate the homage. That would definitely be ambitious.

Heh! Two "that would be telling", two "great idea", one "you're on the right track", and one "yes" - that's a pretty good score!

I'm really looking forward to seeing how you bring it all together - based on what you've done so far it will be awesome.

In the meantime, I have my own theory about our parents - I think Gaspard is closest: that the Armada is responsible.

I suspect even then they were looking for Pollo's map. Kane was fine with leaving Pollo's piece with him, and then in Granchia. (Pollo's epic journey had to have been before the war against Napoleguin, based on the hints we have). Kane knew exactly where it was and could collect it at any time.

Part of Deacon's responsibilities were tracking down the rest of the pieces. He tracked one to our parents, and came after them. Once he had them (but not the piece for reasons no doubt to be explored later), he used his living agents to spread multiple stories of how they'd died. Each of the origin companions heard a different story - except Gaspard who (my theory) was the only survivor from the actual attack. But no one believed him because it wasn't long after the war against Napoleguin so the Armada were still seen as allies.

We were harder to track down - Deacon never found out who our parents left us with. I think once he found where we were, he made his sweep on whatever pretext he could use, which is where the game starts. Of course we don't know where Mom's map piece is either... But we're a key to it.

He used us as his stalking horse to get past Blood's defenses and find Clark's piece. Much more convenient for him to have us taking the risks. He did try to negotiate with Blood, but that ended... badly.

I'm guessing Deacon hadn't traced all the pieces when we destroyed him, since there was no evidence there'd been any Armada activity in Aquila, and there is that stormgate to Aquila in the Aragon Skyway... We know Mom's piece hasn't been traced. We don't know if they've tracked Erika the Red's piece or not.

Us starting that war with Marleybone really threw a wrench into Kane's plans, I think. He didn't have all his pieces in place when it blew up, but that's not going to stop him. And now he's going to be really mad at us.

For some reason I don't think our encounters with him are going to be terribly civilized.

Wow!

Really good theories here, and I'm impressed with your grasp of some of the final details. You're not entirely correct 9and even if you were, I wouldn't tell you ): some of the timing is a bit off. But trying to reconstruct things from the Armada's point of view is always a good exercise.

The war really messed things up for LOTS of people - its impact on Kane is something we tend to ignore, but it was significant (even before the PC showed up and wrecked Rooke).

As for the encouters with Kane, I'm hoping they will be full of surprises.

I was wondering if we would see Avalon in this game? I'm extremely curious about where Dalia Falmea is from. It isn't quite fully explained in Wizard101. It's thought to be that Dalia is from Weirwood, but it's a very small area and does not explain her height. So someone brought up the point of Pirate101 possibly bringing and expanding Avalon. It would help us find out more about where Dalia comes from. Or at least understand her more by visiting the world especially the Weirwood kind.

Thank you.-Kelsey

I won't comment on world list, other than to say that Avalon is VERY fantasy oriented, and it'd take a bit of work to make it fit our stories. We could do it, mind you, it just wouldn't be easy...

i know you technically already did the first question but1.is there anyway you can make tf2 like refrences or have an entire chapter that's a tf2 onage,just remove some more adultish features like the blood and gore,demo's scrumpy(or just turn it to yum) and spy's cigarette.2.(irrelevant i know) but are you a brony:aka a male fan of my little pony friendship is magic i am one myself3.What would happen if our pirate and his/her crew went to an alien world(as in a higly technolgy advanced for the spiral aliens,alien soldiers with rocket launcher's,pistols that shoot lasers not electricity and has a king that is nearly as powerful as a god.)what would you think of that i think it could lead to some possibilty's and cituations.silver joseph vane

1. No, not really.

2. Nope.

3. If we did veer in a more sci fi direction, I doubt it'd be thsat overt: we'd probably frame the sci fi in a more fantasy frame, similar to what Wizard did in Celestia. If you really want stuff like this in a turn-based combat game, go check out X-Com.

Oh me too. I am really hoping for a cool skill quest from our teachers that will give us a really good back story similar to Bonnie Anne's. I am sure Blind Mew is working on this but it also will involve the artists, the quest programmers and of course Ratbeard for the awesome battles. I do hope they have the bandwidth to spare for such things. You couldn't be more right on how epic that would be.

We're working on it. I have one particular idea involving the trainers... it would be Epic indeed.

1. Upon our return to Valencia, would perhaps alchemy play a part in the world and the quest for El Dorado? I can see it coming in handy to someone like Old Scratch in decoding those Celestial Computations, or an explanation as to the origins of the Armada2. Can we get a bit of an elaboration on Bishop's 'imitation' magic - I know you don't have extensive lore on a lot of the cool tidbits throughout the game, but a wee bit on Bishop's Mage status as well as how he got this 'imitation' magic would be nice...3. You said Book 18 will be quite the doozy in regards to worlds - care to tease us as to why?4. Book XV seems to be set to have lots of promotion quests. Will they mostly involve the Valencia companions?5. Does the Armada have any rebel factions within itself (that are still against the pirate?). Perhaps one of the remaining elites plotting against one another...6. Okay, why is there an Argleston in the Lyceum?! I am so baffled by his presence... 7. Any thoughts on Grizzleheim?8. Are we due for a new storyline ship?9. How did the Armada tow Beachhead into Westminster Skyway? The sheer power and strength to do it seems ridiculous...10. Any future plans for Lunden's Bridge?

1. I don't know about alchemy per se, but there will be some interesting stuff you'll get to see.

2. Think Tesla - he's doing amazing things, but via science.

3. A lot of the story falls together in Book 18 - to make it as gonzo as I'd like, there would be lots of places to go. It pushes the limits of our bandwidth.

4. It'd be a shame if htey didn't seeing as how they'd be home and all...

5. I don't think so, at least not in the way you're imagining them. There are disagreements among the Elites, but I don't know if they've gone so far as factionalizing.

6. Because it's fun! You don't think they keep that library at Ravenwood current without looking around other libraries int he Spiral, do you?

7. It's very cold there. And I love Bears.

8. I expect so, but that's Ratbeard's call to make.

9. I was imagining it involved big boats used as tugs - I expect the station also has devices on it that help propel it, or at least reduce its inertia. And yes, Beachhead's whole presence is psych warfare - if the Armada is powerful enough to do that, how can we possibly beat them?

10. There was an original idea we didn't have time to build. I'd love to bring it back later.

1. You answered a question earlier about Gracie Conrad from the Isle of Fetch and Grace Conrad from Celestia saying they are the same person. What I'm kind of thrown off about this is that Grace Conrad is brown furred and sports a pink shirt, making her very different from Gracie Conrad. Gracie Conrad, on the other hand, looks identical to Edith Benchley in the Base Camp of Celestia. Wouldn't it be easier to say Gracie Conrad is a distant cousin or even sister to Grace Conrad? I think it helps allude to Wizard101 rather than making them the same person. Just a suggestion.

2. Do you mind giving a teeny-tiny hint about these captions KI is releasing? Who might the Ancient Ones be and what's up with Aquila coming to Skull Island? Didn't they distance themselves from the Spiral after the first Achaean War (If I remember, correctly)? What have you got up your sleeve this time? I'm very excited about it!

3. You said at one point, I believe in the 2nd Story thread, that a Revolutionary story or theme would be fitting as to what to follow after the El Dorado story ends. Is it possible that for the 2nd story we'll come back to help Avery build his Pirate Republic and use many Colonial American analogue's to break away from Marleybonian (British) and Monquistan (Spanish) rule or World War 1 and 2 references like a German influenced world trying to take over the Spiral? The thought of Goerge Barkington, Christopher Colambus, Moowis and Bark, Marquis de Lapenguette, and Rabbitler (eh?) are interesting puns to use. Maybe even making a northern Skull Island skyway with Polarian rule (like how the French ruled Canada which is north). Plus you have quite a few analogue's people have mentioned (Dutch, Portugeses, and Australian).

4. Is there always a 100% chance a mentioned world actually makes it to the game at some point? Long mentioned worlds like Gobblerton and Candy World posses some sway toward no, but I'm just asking.

1. It was always my intention that they be one and the same.

2. You'll find out soon. The Ancient Ones are probably who you might expect them to be, while the Aquila thing I expect will take you by surprise.

3. I believe I said that would be one cool way to go, but never meant to commit to that idea. The Pirate Republic is something I long to get back to, but I'm not sure how much it would resemble the American Revolution (cool puns notwithstanding). Don't forget - Skull Island is the Carribean. If there is a Polarian presence, it'll be tropical - I expect those poor Penguins would hate it there! There was actually, for a brief moment, a real "Pirate Republic" in the Bahamas in the early 1700s, when several pirate captains (including, most notably, Blackbeard) joined forces and created a de facto democracy with very little in the way of government. That's what inspired Avery's nascent republic.

4. Not at all.We ;love to drop names, and part of the reason wee do it is to plant seeds for future places to go, but there's nothing like a 100% chance.

I would expect Wiz101 would get to develop candyland before P101, considering the ages of your target audiences. But if W101 doesn't want it, I'm sure you could write us into some sticky situations there!

Really good theories here, and I'm impressed with your grasp of some of the final details. You're not entirely correct 9and even if you were, I wouldn't tell you ): some of the timing is a bit off. But trying to reconstruct things from the Armada's point of view is always a good exercise.

The war really messed things up for LOTS of people - its impact on Kane is something we tend to ignore, but it was significant (even before the PC showed up and wrecked Rooke).

As for the encouters with Kane, I'm hoping they will be full of surprises.

Hopefully, I'm expecting Kane's battle to consist of more than one phase in the epic battle to come, Blind Mew, because I tend to see end-of-arc villains to undergo a transformation of sorts or two in their final battles after the first phase. Malistaire's battle in Wizard101's Dragonspyre only had about one form and it was, well... to put it... doesn't have the epic feeling of defeating an end-of-arc villain boss with only one form. I've been through that, and it was... not quite as epic as I thought it would be. I wish he would have had a second form, and it would be fitting to have Malistaire to change into the form of a... large dragon of sorts, with a bit more health, new, yet more powerful monsters and a new boss cheat or two. Regardless, I hope Kane's battle will have more than one phase in the first arc's end as part of the surprises, because I would like to see that happen.

And, I do hope to see at least Krokotopia and Grizzleheim before the first arc is over, because if we would see the Home World 5 companions in the game and the two said worlds weren't in the game yet, what backstories would they have of what worlds they would came from, and how would their adventures turn out before reuniting with the PC, even though the mentioned worlds haven't been made available in the game yet?

Hope you've time to answer to this, if you please, and thanks for answering and listening!

Really good theories here, and I'm impressed with your grasp of some of the final details. You're not entirely correct 9and even if you were, I wouldn't tell you ): some of the timing is a bit off. But trying to reconstruct things from the Armada's point of view is always a good exercise.

The war really messed things up for LOTS of people - its impact on Kane is something we tend to ignore, but it was significant (even before the PC showed up and wrecked Rooke).

As for the encouters with Kane, I'm hoping they will be full of surprises.

Why thank you good sir!

I never expected you to tell me how close I got - you enjoy teasing us too much! (Is this where I admit I'm a published author in part of my off-game life? That gives me a slight advantage in trying to puzzle out where you devious folk are taking the plot). I'm definitely looking forward to seeing just how close I did get and what I missed. I bet when it does emerge I'll find there was enough hidden in the earlier parts to work it out - so far you've done a magnificent job of dropping the teasers in and then doing a bit of redirection and confusion so people don't catch them.

Well, from Kane's perspective Marleybone attacked his forces without provocation or justification. That probably broke a bunch of treaties. I can't imagine him being pleased about that - he probably wanted to crush them for their treachery as well as get the whole business out of the way as quickly as he could so he could get on with his real plans without all these interruptions. Not only that, he would have had the Marleybonians pegged as honorable if a bit dense sometimes, so getting what looked like an attack out of nowhere would have really been a nasty shock.

Marleybone of course thinks the Armada attacked without provocation or justification... At least for now.

I'm sure the encounters with Kane will live up to the standard you've set of EPIC battles to defeat Armada elites, complete with plot twists to set us on our heels.

I was wondering if we would see Avalon in this game? I'm extremely curious about where Dalia Falmea is from. It isn't quite fully explained in Wizard101. It's thought to be that Dalia is from Weirwood, but it's a very small area and does not explain her height. So someone brought up the point of Pirate101 possibly bringing and expanding Avalon. It would help us find out more about where Dalia comes from. Or at least understand her more by visiting the world especially the Weirwood kind.

Thank you.-Kelsey

I think Dalia's height just has to do with bizarre sexual dimorphism between male and female fire elves. There is another fire elf woman, Enya Firemoon, who is the same size as Dalia. Likewise, you never encounter any fire elf women who are tiny. This would suggest that all female fire elves are tall. The vertically compromised brand of fire elves seem to be exclusively male.

Perhaps this was a way to incorporate both the tiny fairy tale elves (think Santa's helpers) as well as the Tolkienesque "tall and pretty" style of elves into a single species.

Thank you so much for the responses, but I have so many questions to ask of you...

1. How does Grizzleheim play into the grand scheme of things?2. Are our actions against Marleybone going to be discovered any time soon?3. Any hints about Old Scratch's next promotion quest? I remember you being nicely vague with Bonnie Anne's ('we'll be learning a lot about her background') and Ratbeard's ('It's...different'.)4. With the recent hints KI has been releasing, is a Skull Island expansion in the works? Or something else entirely?5. I know there are Cutthroats and Hammerheads (the last of which is Mordekai). Are we going to meet any other Shark clans (this relating to a recent sneak peek with a certain shark in Vadima's Sanctum)?6. Is it possible we may get quest chains diving deeply into our trainers' pasts?7. Is the Lafitte clan (and by extension, Black Jean Lafitte) in Marleybone a relation to our Morgan Lafitte?8. Any possible Book XV hints?9. You said the entire story of El Dorado will probably take twenty books. How likely are the chances of that number going up or down?10. When the El Dorado arc ends, you guys are going to whip up a new arc. So my question is - what would you name the El Dorado story? Just calling it 'the El Dorado arc' or 'quest for El Dorado' seems quite dull...

Dear Blind Mew, thank you for answering my questions, but my sister and I have thought of a few more to bug you with.

1. Are there any plans on returning to Avernus Skyway?2. Will we ever get to see our parents' ghosts or echoes or anything like that?3. Can we expect our return to Valencia before the end of 2013?4. My sister wants to know why you read to the point of blindness. 5. Will we get any companions in our return to Valencia?6. Will we get any actual quest gold that we can spend when we go to El Dorado? Or is it more of the point of just getting there? Or maybe a housing item like Captain Gunn's Gold?7. Will we ever get to train our pets?8. Will we ever go to Wizard City or even meet our wizards, if we have any?9. Any plans on going to more Wizard101 worlds or vice versa?10. Will we ever get to plant like in Wizard101?11. Will we ever get pets like dogs or cats?12. What class is Blind Mew?Thanks for answering our questions, we hope it wasn't too many... From Daniel Radcliffe and Destiny Mizzen